Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
“The concept of ‘state capacity’ has become popular in the economic literature, notably to explain why today’s democratic governments seem incapable of doing anything correctly, from supplying public services to controlling their budgets. … What the government cannot do correctly often refers to what the specific defender of state capacity thinks the state should do more of. ‘State capacity’ is an euphemism for state power. It looks rather surprising that the democratic state would lack state capacity as its scope and means of action have grown for more than a hundred years.” (10/09/24)
https://www.econlib.org/the-myth-of-the-lacking-state-capacity/